Virat Kohli admitted Delhi Capitals will be ‘hard to beat’ at the 2020 Indian Premier League after they beat his Royal Challengers Bangalore team convincingly.
Ricky Ponting’s Delhi clinched a 59-run win over Bangalore in Dubai on Monday to move back to the top of the IPL group table.
Australia all-rounder Marcus Stoinis blasted 53 from 26 balls for Delhi as they posted 196-4, with openers Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan also making 42 and 32 respectively.
Only India captain Kohli passed 17 for Bangalore as they were restricted to 137-9 from their 20 overs, with South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada taking four wickets.
Delhi have now won four of their opening five games at this year’s IPL and while Kohli refused to describe them as ‘unbeatable’, he did admit they will be ‘hard to beat’.
‘It didn’t go our way,’ Kohli said at the post-match presentation.’ They got off to a great start.
‘We pulled them back a bit, but the last chase got away from us. As I’ve said before, we need to grab important chances.
‘Again the execution at the end was not spot on. The good thing is we’ve won three out of five so we know we are playing good cricket.
‘We just need to be more professional in those big moments. Delhi are playing some really good cricket. Their batting is fearless.
‘They have got pace and good spinners. I won’t say they are unbeatable, but they will be hard to beat. Against this side, you have to bring your A game. We didn’t do that.’
Delhi captain Shreyas Iyer, meanwhile, said: ‘Winning four out of five, we will take that any day. Kudos to the boys.
‘The strategy is always to play with freedom and be fearless. We have got good youngsters in our team who are filled with energy.
‘We just have to go out and execute our skills and we did that today.’
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